Piano Man
by Riley Hearth
Summary: Douglas is enjoying listening his Ipod while visiting an old friend; some would say a bit too much. Note: placed in Fusion Fall catagory due to mentioning Dexlabs and Dexter living on his own, even at his age. But this could easily go under Dexter's Lab


He scanned his i-pod for a song that sounded good to him at the moment, searching for a good minute before he ran across an old favorite. He pressed 'Play', putting in the ear pieces just in time to hear the second batch of verses being sung.

"_He says, 'Son, can you play me a memory?_

_I'm not really sure how it goes_

_But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete,_

_When I wore a younger man's clothes-'"_

Douglas sang out the lyrics to the song on his music player, reciting each word by heart, swaying rhythmically with the old tune as a smile played across his features.

"_Sing us a song, you're the piano man!_

_Sing us a song tonight-_

_Well we're all in the mood for a melody_

_And you've got us feeling alright"_

While visiting Dexter, Mordecai was staying in his old friend's house for a couple weeks. It had been great seeing him again, and Douglas was honestly surprised when he received Dexter's call to invite him over. With Dexlabs and Dextech, his best friend had been extremely (and increasingly) busy as of late. And, though the brunette was proud as can be of him, he did feel the Boy Genius was working a bit too hard at times. Douglas couldn't help but wonder just how much work Dexter was probably missing and lacking behind on his account, but he was touched that Dex was willing to put it all on hold to spend some time with him. The blue eyed boy stubbornly refused to answer calls or messages from the company, firmly telling employees and robots alike he would be taking time off. OFF. No work. It had taken several days for the young genius to grow accustomed to the lack of business, Douglas had noticed, but he was coming around.

At the moment, the redhead was in the kitchen, making something or other. The kitchen was located far enough away from the room Douglas was occupying, he felt safe in guessing he couldn't hear him.

"…_He says, 'Bill, I believe this is killing me!'"_

Mordecai's voice rose, as he placed a hand over his heart and furrowed his brow,

"_As the smile ran away from his face_

_Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star if I could get out of this place._

_Oh, la la la dedee da.._

_Lala dedee daaaa deda…"_

Singing completely in-sync with the 'la dee da's, he phantom waltzed around the room, lost in his own world.

"_Now Paul is a real-estate novelist,"_

He stopped his waltzing, now placing his other hand over his heart as well, a sad look coming to his eyes as he glanced up at the ceiling and recited

"_Who never had time for a wife._

_And he's talking with Davy,_

_Who's still in the Navy,_

_And probably will be for life"_

Mordecai spun once around once, ending with hands bent out in front of him and fingers spread, lighting playing the air-piano. His relatively high voice rang out surprisingly well as he joyously recited his favorite part of the song- the half of a minute or so.

"_And the waitress is practicing politics,_

_as the businessmen slowly get __stoned__, _

_Yes they're sharing a drink they call 'Loneliness',_

_But it's better than drinking alone!'_

Immediately after, he sprang into a dramatic air piano solo, banging his long fingers on the invisible keys, eyes closed as he focused intently on the bridge* of the classic, all the while swept up in it.

"_Sing us a song, you're the piano man!_

_Sing us a song tonight_

_Well we're all in the mood for a melody_

_And you've got us feeling alright!"_

_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ _~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~__

"_It's a pretty good crowd, for a Saturday,_

_And the manager gives me a smile,_

'_Cause he knows that it's me they've been coming to see,_

_To forget about life for a while"_

Dexter smiled to himself as he silently mouthed the words to the song, his company's vocals ringing throughout the house.

Douglas' voice came again, filled with vigor and enthusiasm,

"_And the piano sounds like a carnival!_

_And the microphone smells like a beer!"_

Dexter could perfectly envision the hazel eyed male's nose scrunch up in disgust at this verse, and his grin widened as he cut the vegetables.

"_And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar and say,_

'_Man, what're _you_ doing here?!'_

_ohhh, la la la dedee da_

_lala dedee daaaa da dum"_

The small statured boy was thoroughly enjoying Douglas' staying with him. It certainly was never boring these days. The lanky teen really did light up his home, with his seemingly endless kindness and humor. Douglas' goofy grin could beat down any stone wall guarding a person's heart or inner child, Dexter was sure; he knew from experience. Not only was his childhood 'best buddy' (as Mordecai still referred to him at times, which he found he didn't mind in the least) an optimist and a bit of a nut if prompt, but he was also very collected and intelligent. Douglas was what some people would call a 'walking encyclopedia', though the majority of it could be very random yet interesting facts. Doug could hold his own in an intelligent debate, knowing his chosen topics of interest extremely well. He may not always fully follow Dexter, or Mandark for that matter, when they went off on a certain subject that would make most not-geniuses' heads spin, but he did try. And he did rather well.

Scraping the produce into a bowl, he set the knife down and went to find the American-Idol-To-Be.

_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Mordecai continued to sway back and forth, humming the notes until the wording arrived once more, winding down the song.

"_Sing us a song, you're the piano man_

_Sing us a song tonight,_

_Well we're all in the mood for a melody_

_And you've got us felling alright."_


End file.
